Marijuana Seizures Increase at Border Despite Mexican Drug War And Medical Legalization in California, Other States

As blood continues to flow from Mexico's drug-cartel wars, the country's marijuana crop is having a banner year, beating last year's seizure rate along the Texas border from Del Rio to Brownsville by 10 percent so far this year, according to the Houston Chonicle.

Strange given that it's legal in 16 states.

In California, people laugh at the idea that quasi-legalization via medical pot has anything to do with the cartels' bread-and-butter crop. In fact, pot advocates argue medical marijuana is bad for cartel business. So far that doesn't seem to compute, though:

Weed is cheap and plentiful in California, true, but maybe that's just because the cartels have been good at keeping the spigot on blast, whether the weed is sold on the street or over-the-counter. Maybe.

Marijuana remains the constant commodity of choice for the drug cartels because of end user demand and the ease of production.

It's a staple, responsible for as much as 60 percent of the cartels' drug proceeds, and a drug that's easier to grow and move than cocaine and heroin, according to the Chronicle: While law enforcement down south focuses on drug rivalries -- 40,000 Mexicans have died in less than five years -- crops blossom.

Even on this side of the border, the paper claims, prosecutors "routinely" have let those accused of importing less than 100 pounds (100 pounds!) off.

So it's ending up in somebody's pipe. (No. Not yours L.A. Dispensaries here never make backroom deals for weed that has dubious origins. Ever).

Now, L.A. smokers insist that pot-shop weed is homegrown and often hydroponic and Mexican cannabis is a grade above common dust. But is that a stereotype? Are the cartels, deft and moving kilos of high-grade cocaine, unable to grow any kind of decent pot?

Dennis Romero is an L.A. Weekly staff writer. He formerly worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Los Angeles Times, where he participated in Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the L.A. riots. His work has appeared in Rolling Stone online, the Guardian and, as a young stringer, the New York Times.